Jetstar has agreed to stop pre-selecting extra services when selling airline tickets online after the Commerce Commission deemed the booking system was misleading customers. The Commission issued the airline a formal warning following a formal investigation. Chair Mark Berry said the Commission was prepared to take the airline to court for potentially breaching the Fair Trade Act. "The Commission believes the practice of preselecting optional extra services during an online sales process can mislead consumers over the price of the product or service they are buying and can cause them to purchase something they did not intend to," Berry said. CE Sue Chetwin says the extra charges can add more than NZ$40 to a ticket on a flight from Wellington to Auckland and customers are being charged for services they never wanted. <br/>
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Emirates airline Wednesday said it will be able to expand its network in India from the existing 10 cities to more, once bilateral agreements on seating capacity are signed with the Indian govt. “We have 10 points (cities) in India. We are trying to expand as much as we can. With the limited seat capacity we are very much restricted Wednesday to these 10 points. If the bilateral agreement goes through, we can gain seats and we can cover most of the points in India. Our objective is to cover as much as we can,” Ahmed Khoory, senior VP, commercial operations, West Asia and Indian Ocean, for Emirates said. He said currently the airlines is operating A380 aircraft to Mumbai only and once the bilateral agreement is signed, then Delhi and Hyderabad would also have the potential to operate such aircraft. <br/>
Malaysian airline tycoon Tony Fernandes, CE of AirAsia, said he’s applied for a version of Indian citizenship, a status that may allow him to fully own his local unit and skirt some aviation rules that restrict foreigners. If India grants the special citizenship to Fernandes, he may be able to fend off rivals who say AirAsia is violating foreign ownership rules by fully controlling the local unit even though it’s allowed to hold only up to 49%. Becoming an overseas citizen of India may clear the path for Fernandes to acquire, in his personal capacity, 100% of the venture he now shares with the Tata Group and a private investor. “This whole foreign thing is bizarre for me,” said Fernandes, whose parents are from India. “What’s important? Is it creating jobs, is it creating investments, increasing tourism?” <br/>